Adventuring

Spent this morning adventuring with a 4 year old I occasionally borrow. We went too our favourite spot - the forest. Armed with Dora backpack, picnic and raincoats (ah, summer in Ireland)we went exploring. He is now 4 1/2 and as he was only four the on our last expedition we could do considerably more this time. He climbed his first tree, scrambled over rocks to get down to the beach and slid down the cliff path to the car park on his own. As usual I returned him covered in a layer of muck and suitably tired. I'm noticing however that the older he gets the less tired he becomes and the more tired I get.
He's been hinting at a sleep over in my house for quite a while now so I'll have to start preparing the hubby for a night of making camps from the sitting room furniture, exploring the garden by torch light and examining interesting bugs, and of course something for the kid to do!


At 6,500 words and came up with an interesting sub plot over the weekend that I'll have to figure out how to work in.

Peeing in a boot

Some of you doubted it could be done - but yes, it is possible for a woman to pee in a boot. I would recommend double lining said boot with plastic bags (see photo of experiment set up) and the addition of kitty litter does help with the clean up operation. Don't panic, I will not by trying out murdering techniques in order to make my plot more plausible.

Had my girlie weekend away and almost totally failed at relaxing. A spa weekend while in the middle of reading Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth leads to a lot of mixed emotions. However, dinner was fab and the company was good.
I do find it hard to relax when my mind is in creative mode and I managed to scribble on every bit of paper I could find in the hotel room and I think I talked incessantly for at least 6 hours ( and I drink green tea not coffee). That said, I'm definitely less wired than when I left on sat.
Maybe I've exhausted myself out as I could not get my ass out of bed this morning (lucky that I have that luxury I suppose) and am now going to spend the rest of the day trying to catch up on myself.

Well the weekend is beginning early and from the looks of it there won't be much writing until Mon.

Elfenpants (went through a phase of giving everyone I know Lord of the Rings names - hilarious after a few) is getting married in a mere 3 weeks so the females of the family are heading off on a pampering weekend.

I must have been a little stressed lately as himself was muttering last night about how much i could do with a massage and that he was looking forward to the return of a calmer wife.

Did I snap his head off? Of course I did - I'm premenstrual and therefore entitled to.

As for my heroine (note extra e denotes character as opposed to drug of choice), I've got her out from under the stairs, but not before she had to pee in a boot. She is currently in the pub where I plan on being myself in a very short time.

real blogger now

Big day today - posted first comment on another blog and got two comments in return. Ah it's the little milestones. Thank you Baino and Dario Sanchez I feel like a real blogger now.

I'm sure as I get used to this I'll let go a little more, I'm still quite nervous of getting out there but sure i suppose that's only natural.

Got some fab news today, crazy lady (who i love dearly) got the all clear from her last cancer removal op - so on the piss for the weekend.

Not only that but i'm here writing into the night ( and kind of sulking too, if I'm honest)and current word count is 5102 - so doing well. In fact I'm giving my heroine a blog too so I'm justifying this as research of a sort. At the moment the poor girl is locked under the stairs with a volatile stranger lurking outside. Not sure how long I'll leave her there -two chapters is prob as far as I'll stretch it. I'm no Stephen king.

Goals

As I can be quite a scatty person and not just a little disorganised I'm going to set some goals for myself.
Firstly: write every day
Secondly: at least 1,000 words per day
Day one, end of day total was 2121 words and by the end of day two that total (cumulative) had climbed to 3239.
This is not an extra ordinary amount of work but it is getting me started and it is achievable. I'll reassess in a week or so and see how I'm doing.
At the moment I'm leaving out descriptions which I plan to go back later and fill in, and instead I am concentrating on getting the plot developed. So many ideas - it's quite exciting.

Day Two

Well, day two of the great novel. and life is already getting in the way!!

Correction, life is more important and I still managed to get plenty of writing done today.

I had the interesting experience of visiting the bob the builder website with a 5 yr old today and sending bob e-cards from him to his cousin and friends I thought might enjoy a laugh - ah, I'll always be a kid on the inside.

As usual I'm trying to do a million things at once, but that has always worked for me in the past and at the mo I'm writing a short story for a competition (grade me, grade me), touching up a poem for another competition (ditto) and of course continuing work on the novel that the world has been waiting for!

Not to mention, cleaning, cooking, babysitting and visiting my folks and it's not even 7 o'clock yet.

Must clean my office as I reckon it's symbolic of my chaotic state of mind. Won't clean it up too much, I like a little bit of random chaos. I'll post a photo when I unearth the camera, in the meantime here's Loui and Therms in their favourite place.

Introducing Loui

This is my trusty steed Loui who sits on my keyboard, stands infront of my screen and generally makes herself useful.

She likes nothing better than when we spend a day in the office. We spent a lot of time there today. Her brother prefers his own company and spent most of today asleep on a pile of clothes in the bedroom

When she lets me I'm trying to just keep writing and worry about structure and research later. It seems to be working and a plot is definitely emerging as my fingers type out stuff it didn't even know was in my head. Characters are appearing at a fierce rate and it's all I can do to keep up with the outpouring of words.

Every now and then I need a little think so I go and do some ironing or another mundane task that lets the grey cells churn away.

virgin blogger

I set up this blog a wee while ago but have found myself reticent to contribute anything. I figure it's time I just start writing and feck the perfectionism and paranoia.

My new blog coincides with my attempt at writing a novel (yes, I'm another one of those) so I'll probably use this to track my progress, frustrations and hopefully ultimate success.

A word of warning, I'm going to think of this as a venting facility and use it as such!!

I've begun my novel writing with an ending and I haven't quite figured out how I'll get to this ending but at least I'm writing. The main character and the topic I'm dealing with are not too far from my realm of experience so that should make it a little easier- or harder, I'll find out.

I've written quite a bit of stuff in the past but it's only recently that I'm beginning to find my own voice. The column I write for a local mag has really helped me with that, as have the various college essays I've had to produce in the last year. This whole mature student thing is great for streamlining my thought processes and making sense of the fuzziness.

Well, that's my first entry written - another milestone.